Religious Ideology or Rule of Law?

With John McCain and Sarah Palin calling for an overturn of Roe v. Wade, one retired Bishop takes a stance.

1st Presidential Debate

I had seriously considered blogging a running commentary to tonight's debate. Turns out, I don't have that many comments. It's pretty much the same comment continually - "ughhhhhhhh." I wish that Senator Obama would step up his game and that Senator McCain would stop saying such frustrating things.

However, I do appreciate Jim Lehrer's presence tonight. He is a great debate moderator.

I never watch Letterman

This was sent to me by a co-worker. I'm tired of all the trash-talking and the double-speak and the house of cards. Is the election here yet? Can this all just be over, already?

"Today" show comes to Williamsburg

from W&M News:

"William and Mary students, faculty, staff and alumni will get a taste of national television Wednesday when NBC’s “Today ” show broadcasts live from Williamsburg.

The popular morning show will be just steps from campus when co-host Matt Lauer broadcasts from Colonial Williamsburg’s reconstructed Colonial Capital at the eastern end of Duke of Gloucester Street. Lauer will be joined by TV personality Al Roker, who will engage the spectators along DoG Street, including an expected contingent of William and Mary faithful.

Friends and parents can tune into NBC affiliates from 7-9 a.m. to perhaps catch a glimpse of hundreds of members of the Tribe family proudly sporting the green and gold.

The broadcast is coming to Virginia as part of the "Today" show’s coverage of the upcoming presidential election. Virginia has been tagged as one of several battleground states in the campaign.

If you are planning on attending the broadcast, spectators are encouraged to arrive early."

Oh, I'll be there (getting up at 4am, grumble grumble grumble). Pictures of my signs to come :)

like a Rolling Stone

I do not usually read Rolling Stone, but I had read the issue criticized in this letter to the editor. Dang ...

It's the end of an era, kids ...

I haven't watched MTV's TRL since middle school (but I watched it A LOT in middle school). So it is with just a tiny bit of sadness that I report that TRL is going off the air in November.

Just to be clear, it's sad that I'm getting so old and shows that I assumed in middle school would always be around are no longer going to be around. It's really not that sad that TRL is going off the air.

PS. did you know that Carson Daly (of MTV VJ and TRL "fame") has his own late night talk show. WEIRD!!! Who thought that was a good idea??

Pie #2

For my second pie, I chose my v. favorite: pumpkin. Technically, it's still baking. But a friend came over to help me bake (she's baked a lot of pies in her day), so with her standing by to prevent me from accidentally putting the filling for 2 pies into a single pie crust, I am fairly confident that this won't be a disaster.

I hope to soon have a pie pan, which will mean that I can start making my own crust. And I already have an idea for the first pie recipe I want to create. What more does a girl with a dream of opening her own pie shoppe need?

trailer time

So too many of my posts have been about politics, time for my favorite new movie trailers: Nights and Weekends, Nothing Like the Holidays, Milk, and The Secrets

In the Seventh Year by Roger Cohen

This is v. sad indeed.

I guess my first question in response to the TV Newser article, Has the Media Been Unfair to Sarah Palin?, is has the media been fair to any of the candidates?

I've also been reading this Newser article, Beating the Press, about McCain's rejection of the major news networks that helped him cultivate his image as a maverick in Congress.

It seems to me that in the past 8 years the *quote* liberal *unquote* media has gotten more and more conservative. I know that others would disagree. I think regardless of the label you would give, the argument remains that the press - particularly the 3 major cable news networks (Fox, CNN, and MSNBC) are filled with biased reporting. I will concede that their bias changes depending on the PICK ONE: anchor/reporter/event/month/day/hour/direction-in-which-the-wind-blows. Whichever way you think the media bias leans, it seems apparent to me that we have come a long way from Tom Brokaw's trusted reporting on NBC Nightly News.

The fact that the word "swiftboating" even exists calls the motives of cable news networks into question. I often wonder if certain individuals within the Fox, CNN, and MSNBC hierarchy believe they are reporting on the election or determining the outcome of the election.

I applaud MSNBC's decision to remove Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews from election coverage. At least it confirms that they are trying to remove bias and opinion from their political coverage. It remains to be seen how successful they are.

mmmmm pie!

I just baked the first pie that I've ever baked in my life (key lime, made with key lime juice bought during my week in Key Wets this Summer). And now (partially inspired by my first pie and partially inspired by the movie The Waitress) I want to learn to bake more types of pies. I could always just go on to foodnetwork.com and look for recipes, but I thought it would be smarter to ask the people that I know if they have good recipes for pies (dessert of non-dessert). So, I've started asking around to find out who has pie recipes (first stop: Mom). I also had to commandeer a pie pan from my mother (because when I got into the kitchen to make a pie crust I realized that I did not own a pie pan). I'm still sort of intimidated to by pie-baking, so I thought if I had a recipe that I knew someone else was able to successfully make it'd be a good place to start ...

But speaking of The Waitress, maybe I'll just throw all my other career aspirations out the window and open my own pie shoppe. I already have one friend committed to working with me in our little pie shoppe. Now I just need to learn to make pie!

Al Gore Facts

I found this old joke from Daily Kos in my bookmarks and had to share ... Enjoy!

the intimacy revolution

I am a committed reader of the PostSecret blog every Sunday afternoon. This Sunday, I followed a link to the myspace blog about PostSecret and found a post by the authors of Not Quite What I was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. Rachel Fershleiser, one of the two authors said this about projects like hers and PostSecret,

"So many of the recent projects we admire - Found Magazine, Mortified, To-Do List —involve sharing the mundanities of your everyday life with perfect strangers, and elevating them to art in the process. Call it the intimacy revolution, the democratization of media, the user-generated age, or anything else—Frank Warren is one of its true heroes. We're just proud to be a part of making sure every individual is heard and valued."

I love that idea that these projects are part of an intimacy revolution. I'm generally a fan of the democratization of media, because there is a lot of crap being produced in the name of making money right now. Youtube is one of the more successful forces of change in the media. However, these projects like PostSecret and Not Quite What I was Planning and Learning to Love You More (a book which I just checked out from the library) are part of the intimacy revolution ... I'm going to be thinking about this more today, because I really like this concept.